TALE OF THE TAPE:
Game: Edmonton Oilers (26-35-7, 59 pts) vs San Jose Sharks (36-23-6, 78 pts)
Location: San Jose, California
Time: 7:00 PM MT
Where to find it: TV: Sportsnet West – Radio: 630 CHED
Edmonton Oilers Preview:
With the Oilers losing Brandon Davidson to injury, the depleted Oilers made the move to use their final available post-deadline recall and brought up Griffin “Big Cat” Reinhart.
What the team has done with Reinhart has been great, and they have shown plenty of patience to allow this young man to grow as a player and as a person. After all, Griffin is still only 22 years old.
“He’s come up in the past and given us some good games and then responded down the road with one or two average ones,” said Oilers Head Coach Todd McLellan. “We’ve stressed that to him as an organization, not only here at the NHL level, but at the American League level. He can give you some real good nights and then he’s got to respond and maintain that. That’s what we’ll be looking for.”
He has a lot more developing to do and giving up on a former fourth-overall pick at this point would be foolish.
Not all defencemen are able to step in and play. Look at Brandon Davidson. While there are definite differences when it comes to the expectations of a fourth-overall pick vs. a sixth-round pick, but the patience shown by the Oilers with Reinhart will only benefit both parties moving forward.
He draws in tonight alongside Adam Pardy on the third pairing.
The Sharks are a tough foe, and they showed that last night winning a 2-1 game against the Flames despite getting heavily outshot and out chanced. They are a team destined for the playoffs this off season being quietly led by Joe Thornton and the 63 points in 65 games he has put up this year.
Thornton has been a treat to watch his whole career, and in my opinion is a sure fire Hall-of-famer.
After becoming a much bigger team within the last eight days, it should be interesting to see how the Oilers play against a heavy Western conference team like the Sharks.
Lauri Korpikoski and Nail Yakupov have swapped lines, and Korpi will see time with McDavid and Eberle.
Quotes from oilers.nhl.com.
Predictions for tonight:
- Oilers beat the Shorks 3-2.
- Lauri Korpikoski continues his recent hot-streak, and scores a goal tonight.
- The Big Cat has a strong showing, and gets an assist.
How did last games predictions go:
- Adam Pardy has to get some anger out after being waived, and fights one of his former teammates.
- In another physical affair, Patrick Maroon leads all Oilers with 5 hits.
- The Jets fall to the Oilers 4-3.
No fight for Pardy, but he had another strong showing.
Maroon tied for second in hits with two, and Adam Cracknell led all Oilers with four. Close, but no cigar.
While the score was off, it was still a one-goal game and the Oilers came out on top.
0.5/3
San Jose Sharks Preview:
San Jose will play its second game in Alberta in as many nights after a 2-1 overtime win at the Calgary Flames on Monday. The Sharks have won three of their past four games and are 18-5-4 since Jan. 9. Goalie James Reimer likely will start Tuesday after Martin Jones made an NHL career-high 47 saves against the Flames. Brent Burns has scored in four straight games; he’s the first defenseman to score more than 23 goals in a season since Mike Green had 31 with the Washington Capitals in 2008-09. Joe Pavelski’s goal Monday was his 30th of the season; he leads the NHL with nine game-winners. “Right now, you’ve got to keep pace with everybody,” Pavelski said. “Everybody’s playing good. We understand our game’s got to improve over the last week, week and a half. It can get better.”
— NHL.com
Line Combos and Starting Goalies c/o Left Wing Lock:
Oilers (Cam Talbot):
Taylor Hall – Leon Draisaitl – Patrick Maroon
Lauri Korpikoski – Connor McDavid – Jordan Eberle
Nail Yakupov – Mark Letestu -Zack Kassian
Matt Hendricks – Anton Lander – Adam Cracknell
Andrej Sekera – Mark Fayne
Darnell Nurse – Adam Clendening
Griffin Reinhart – Adam Pardy
EDM Injuries: Oscar Klefbom (leg infection), Andrew Ference (hip), Ryan Nugent-Hopkins (hand), Eric Gryba (knee), Benoit Pouliot (shoulder), Brandon Davidson (knee).
WHY HOCKEY GODS????? WHYYYYYYYY!
Scratched: Iiro Pakarinen, Luke Gazdic, Nikita Nikitin
San Jose Sharks (James Reimer):
Tomas Hertl – Joe Thornton – Joe Pavelski
Matt Neito – Logan Couture – Joel Ward
Nick Spaling – Patrick Marleau – Joonas Donskoi
Danius Zubrus – Chris Tierney – Melker Karlsson
Marc-Edouard Vlasic – Justin Braun
Paul Martin – Brent Burns
Brenden Dillon – Roman Polak
Any ideas on how to improve my game previews? Send me an email at zjlaing@gmail.com. Follow me on Twitter.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kcmwXUdDCE]
Seems like Yak has one bad game and he is demoted, Eberle has been coasting lately is he missing any PP time or has he been dropped a line. No chance, this is one of the things that really bothers me. Everyone on this team is equal, except some players are more equal than others.
I truly hope that Yak gets traded then lites it up. Look at Perron , everyone in Pittsburgh said he was a bust, now he is a point a game player with a different team .
Sometimes under a different group where you are aloud to make the odd mistake and not get dropped (unless you are Eberle of coarse) a change is for the best.
Meanwhile the Oilers won’t Trade Yak and they continue to give him the crap players to work with . Maybe they should be playing the hell out of him to get a decent return. That would be the smart thing to do, I’m sure they didn’t trade him because they couldn’t get much for him. When you play this kid mostly on the 3rd line and only give him Eberle’s scraps on the PP what do you expect.
Hey Lee! Sorry for the late reply!
I have to wonder about Yak and Eberle when the coach says the onus is on the players to improve, especially when they’ve had plenty of coaches telling them the same thing. But yak is still a young guy, as is Nuge, so I’m willing to give them some extra rope. IF he gets dealt, the Yak lovers will NOT be impressed with the return. Not one bit. His value is not great. But who knows, maybe we’ll see something once he’s with a decent centre. I mean they can’t stick him on the 4th line after Nuge returns. If they do, then we’ll all know what’s going on.
As for Perron, he lights it up for about short period of time then disappears. He’s always done that. Did it in STL, EDM, PIT and now ANH…